when the lend lease london Interdictor was announced that it would cease to exist and that it would return liberty navy .. dam that was some serious rant, and pleople saying that they paid alot for that ship and they were going to lose it ... welll ... lend lkease ... you know what that means right? also the fortune that some players paid for that ship was not the label price, was the price that previous owners asked for them, and also the ship would still exist, but now on liberty service. and what happened? devs made did the will of their owners and they kept their ships under lbretonia use.
barge owners paid the label price for one ship, and now they have what they paid? no! so why the london battlecruiser had such treatment and the barge has the opposite? if nothing was done, the ship would be the same, but now on other navy ... people could make a srp request and keep it on bretonia service but NO ... it was made a special ship for it, and the barge it is the sam thing that owners paid the hyper price label? no, and looks like some want to make it even worse.
let's use math shall we? i'm going to give some examples that in a "normal world"make all the perfect sense. transport ships are in several sizes and prices. some have more cargo space, others more protection others have better handling, and others are more expensive. for example, the armadillo border world transport, great little ship, handles very well and 7 good turrets, and 2.7k of cargo with a very good price of around 124k ... but ... if you want more cargo space you can get the great border world transport with 3.6 k of cargo, more armour and even more turrets, but ... it is bigger ... way bigger but is not one big ship ... and handles worse and despite having more turrets, since it is a biger ship, it means the fire is more disperse, and it is more expensive at 410k, it even makes more expensive per cargo unit than the previous one, but we all know that. but if you want more protection, well the is the Peregrine, gunboat shield, 6 gunboat guns, more armour BUT ... less cargo, way more expensive at 1035k, and much bigger ... the peregrine is really big ship, but people know it and don't mind pay more, carry less cargo all for that extra protection. if you want protection and more cargo, you can have the battle transport, the aspis for example is a slow turning but not sluggish ship ... and very good looking i like it a lot .. has armour, several turrets and 4.3k cargo untis all for the price 1080k ... almost the same price of the peregrine and with more cargo hold, but less protection. but more cargo hold? sure. the 5k are a good choice but ... you will get a really big ship, with none to few guns, and bad handling .. but 5k cargo hold for the ZBT you will pay 1300k for a very weak hull, and no guns, but a good handling for one 5k. for the rheinland train it is 1600k.
my point ... when barge owners bought a barge, they knew they would get the biggest ship they could buy, with the worst handling there is ... i remember that event that one barge went from theta to omega 48 by omega 41 ... what a nightmare to cross those asteroids ... i also remember once near planet new berlin, one barge went from Essen station and then wantet to dock on the trade lane to go frankfurt ... let's say i saw it on new berlin, went to honshu and when i returned to new berlin, htat barge still didn't docked on the trade lane .. and my personel experience with mine .. that got stuck on the tiniest asteroid, that i could not even see it ... ooh boy!
well my point .. we all knew that barge were terrible and the worst ship to fly, but paid the 15 billion ... old finance system ... or like is said in my country , 15 thousands of millions for that 30k cargo hold, like all ships that i previous mention, all have advantages and all have problems, it is a choice .. more cargo less protection and less handling, more protection less cargo, less protection more cargo, smaller ship cheaper, bigger ship more expensive, and that is normal. but now .. the atual barge it is not the same ship that barge owners paid the label price. and looks like the solution is even make it worse ... ohh boy only here!! karlotta said it all and now Stewgar is right ... nothing has changed.
take care all have fun, sorry for the text wall and thanks for reading it
for the ZBT you will pay 1300k for a very weak hull, and no guns, but a good handling for one 5k. for the rheinland train it is 1600k.